How to Publish Dashboards in NetSuite

Posted On: May 18, 2016
Posted by: Joe Lippert

Dashboards provide NetSuite users with access to real-time data in a centralized location. Customized dashboards can be developed for specific roles within the company and published to employees who have access to that specific role.

Once your customized dashboards have been created, you can determine who has access to it. It is helpful for the various roles in an organization to have similar dashboards published so that users within that role have easy real-time access to the same data. This will enhance the standardization of reporting throughout the organization.

Who Can Publish a Dashboard?

Administrators (Administrator, Marketing Administrators, Sales Administrators, etc.) or roles with the publish dashboard permission (set up subtab of role permissions) can publish the dashboards to specific roles.

Publishing ability to various roles is based on the role center, such as accounting center, sales center, etc. The center is visible when the role is being viewed or edited (set up>>users/roles>> click role).

For example, the Accounting Manager with an accounting center could publish dashboards to the subordinates who also have the accounting center. The Accounting Manager could not publish a dashboard to a warehouse clerk, who has a shipping center.

When a dashboard is published, it may be published in locked mode, unlocked mode or add/move content mode. When it is locked, the end user will not be able to make changes to the dashboard or refine it to their exact needs. When it is add/move content mode, the end user will be able to edit the published dashboard for their login only. The user, however, will not be able to remove content. Lastly, unlocked mode has no restrictions to editing.

How to Publish a Dashboard

As discussed above, the publisher can publish dashboards to specific related centers, i.e. sales center based roles can publish to other sales centers based roles. The publisher can choose to either publish one center tab or multiple center tabs. When the dashboard is being published, the publisher can also define what changes the end user is able to make to the dashboard.

To publish a dashboard first you want to be sure you create the dashboard with a center type matching the center types of the roles who will be using the dashboard.

After you have finished configuring the dashboard, navigate to the settings portlet and click on publish dashboard (image below)

The following screen will appear:

Name – Enter a name for the dashboard

Notes – Enter notes for the dashboard, describing any versions of dashboards

Lock Shortcuts – If you want to prevent users from removing Shortcuts portlet links on the published dashboard’s pages

Lock New Bar – To prevent users from removing Create New bar links on the published dashboard’s page

Apply to Roles – Select the roles for which the dashboard should be published to. To reiterate, the roles available on the list are only roles with the same center as the publisher role

Override existing user’s settings – If this is checked you are indicating that this dashboard should be published to existing users with the selected role, replacing their current dashboards. Clear this check box if you want to publish the dashboard only to new users assigned the selected role.

Apply to Tabs – Select the tabbed center pages that you have customized to be part of the published dashboard

Click apply to the desired center tabs

Mode – This defines how the end user can edit the published dashboard

Unlocked – user can make any changes

Locked – user can make no changes

Add/Move – user can add and move content, but not remove content

Click save and the dashboard is published to the respective roles.

Beyond Dashboards

Dashboards are a great way to pull important data out of your system and provide real-time visibility into what matters most. By creating a personalized or role based dashboard for your organization, you can easily control the information that is displayed and critical to your job.

NetSuite offers great standard out of the box functionality, with the ability to customize it to your organization. FMT’s experienced NetSuite consultants can evaluate your current system and help further maximize your productivity. For more information, contact us by filling out the form below.

Joe Lippert

As a Senior NetSuite Consultant specializing in the deployment of ERP systems for businesses across various industries, Joe possesses multiple years of accounting, NetSuite solution implementation and project management experience. Joe has a great deal of experience customizing and configuring NetSuite to align with customer’s business processes and integrating NetSuite to various third party applications. Joe has developed valuable insights into business and accounting processes over his consulting career.

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